I found myself driving all over the U.S. doing tedious life kind of stuff this weekend, so I missed the whole thing. I have to get an iPhone. Anyway I read the reports the morning and I'm just so thrilled to hear all of this. Even Taste and See can be bearable in a setting like this (well, not really). Anyway, really, this is just so splendid. And that's right that Gregorian propers is a big step forward even from the best of the U.S. Masses, which I think used seasonal Communion proper but that's all. I'm glad that EWTN has archived it.

I really really missed being part of the NLM peanut gallery this time!

After Masses today, I surfed over to EWTN and caught 30 seconds of Moore's "Taste and See." Couldn't take in any more than that. Again, lack of humility.
Here's the gist for me, bullet point style:
How can they (both Aussies and Americans) get it right with enculturation in one liturgy and so wrong in another? I watched with fascination the Gospel procession by the aboriginal troupe/singers yesterday and how that juxtaposed with the transfer of the Book to the clerics while the indigineous choir sat in the circle and chanted their song and then the "Alleluia" with both apparent authenticity and respect. And then the deacon chanted the Gospel in psalm tone, a tad nervous as his pitch rose while maintaining composure. It was an odd scene, but not incongruous. I think I saw that reaction in the Pope's visage. But today, what is it that compels people to only think inside the box when deciding to program "Taste and See?" James Moore, African-American....hmmm. Original recording, gospel style....hmmm....gotta have an African American mezzo with a huge, unmeasureable vibrato unctiously (sp?) belting the tune with a big back beat, orchestra, kwah and kitchen sink. Face of pope? "Gesu bambino, how long vill zis zong continue?"
I decided to take a nap.
I've stated before about these spectacle (and sometimes debacle) fetes that humility is the missing factor in planning and performance. That's the disease. The symptons? Lack of subtlety, delicacy and grace.
I only have seen glimpses of WYD, so I'm only reflecting on these two snippets. Don't infer from the above a whole critique of the schmeer. Actually, the theme song was better heard than as it appeared on paper.

Does anyone have a link to a rebroadcast of this Mass? I'm not sure why I have such trouble finding things on the EWTN site.

Maybe I'm the odd person out here, but I just don't even bother watching these giant events. I'm with several others who wish that these things were not Masses, but go ahead and let them be what they want to be, "events". Let the pope speak and let the Christian entertainment happen. That way, everyone is happy. They can all go to Mass in a church for goodness sake.

I wasn't terribly interested to watch. My girlfriend and I watched bits and pieces so that I could hear some of the music. The "official" WYD Mass Ordinary wavered between superb and overly broadway. It was interesting to compare the comportment of the two cantors; to me the tenor looked like he was singing at church, the soprano looked like she was singing for a musical. The Kyrie mishap was amusing at first, but that piece just went on and on and on and on... I don't mind long Kyries at all, but if you want to do one, there's plenty of fine ones by Mozart and Haydn and Bruckner and I could go on... The Gospel procession was truly bizarre, but nothing beat the bewilderment on the pope's face during it!

On the other hand, the cathedral liturgy was all-around incredible. Anyone else catch that wonderful Gospel Acclamation? THAT is exactly what I want in a non-chant Alleluia: simple without being dumb, majestic without drawing attention to itself, and dignified without ruling out frequent usage.

There's still silliness, and LOTS of it, but only a true pessimist could miss the MASSIVE improvements being made in large-scale liturgies, even between the USA Masses in April and WYD today! Were I still in parish ministry, I would respond to ANY objections with "turn on your TV to EWTN and tell me what the modern trends are." (as usual a disclaimer: I am not saying that we must do what the trend is, but rather pointing out that those who view this as a goal of liturgy are thus bounden to do chant and latin since that is the obvious trend today)

it was during the dance thing called "Judas Kiss".

After listening to the WYD Mass, one thing is obvious: the salicus, with its moldy "old church" sound, just doesn't "speak" to today's young people. But when they got to a horizontal episema, the singers really participated actively. If you want to know why people aren't coming to Mass, it's because of that awful salicus we keep hearing week after week. Maybe if we heard some more uplifting episemata (like we used to have all the time before our "new" music director came and changed everything) then people would sing more.

The WYD website has video 'installments' from the masses and much else.
http://www.wyd2008.org/index.php/en
http://video.wyd2008.org/
As SBS (Australia) was the official TV channel, it too has bits, albeit trashy:
http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/worldyouthday
The SBS coverage was annoying as there were voice-overs when I was hanging out to hear the music.
Watching the proceedings from the other side of Australia*, my feeling was that there wasn't much participation. I'm pretty sure that the contingent from our diocese wouldn't have heard the Our Father in Latin before - most of our priests would probably ban a Pater Noster in Latin. Hopefully they were listening...
* The other side of Australia ... If you are interested in Western Australian flora:
http://geographelandcarenursery.mysouthwest.com.au/

OK, I think I've watched most of it now (only crashed windows 6 times). I've got to say that at least the level of taste was pretty much the same across the board, whether contemporary or classical. It just shows how much that old argument is really moot. It was the liturgical music that was included, not the extra-liturgical music, that was a step forward. Now if only for the next one they don't feel the need to compose a bombastic orchestral Mass that most of the attendees will never sing again. I'm not saying the music was especially bad, just that it didn't seems to be pointing at the ideal. Maybe the next step will be to commission a chant Mass in the vernacular, or -- better -- a newly composed harmonization or alternatim setting using authentic chants from the repertoire.

I don't see any problem with having a choral Ordinary. But that's not what we had here. It was basically a choral arrangement of a congregational Ordinary (although I believe the composer and arranger are the same person). This hybrid model seems to me to be a missed opportunity. It was neither a great piece of purely choral music nor anything particularly useful for a congregation to learn. Again, this is not comment on the quality of the music, just the model that it seemed to follow (no doubt stipulated in the commission). But I hear your point: "it is what it is."

@Heath:

According to the WYD liturgy guide, the Veni Sancte Spiritus alternatim setting was penned by Palestrina. Doesn't seem to be on CPDL at the moment.

Now some comments:

I was on the field for the vigil, and woke up to the strains of Tone 8G - men, presumably seminarians, were singing Lauds (included in the liturgy guide without notation). Wonderful way to wake up.

That was followed by various selections of pop-inspired music, interspersed with earnest efforts at animating the crowd from the designated host and hostess, and culminating in the WYD 2008 theme song "Receive the Power" sung in English by the songwriter and a female singer. A bit of incidental music, some of which which sounded similar to Enya's "Orinoco Flow", accompanied the papal arrival; I was told afterwards that it was culled from a film about vocations.

Then, the schola sang the introit Spiritus Domini and I thought about Dr. Mahrt's remarks at Colloquium 2008 about the lack of a Gregorian introit for the Stadium Masses in the USA. For me, that trumped all of the preceding activity.

The Mass setting has been discussed here before, so I feel no need to comment on it. The cross-up on the Kyrie Form C was a bit jarring to me, but only because of my familiarity with the liturgy.

The response to the General Intercessions/Prayers of the Faithful was noteworthy in that it was a threefold Latin "Deus, exaudi nos". (I should mention at this time that from my vantage point in the back, to the right of the racetrack grandstand, the cantors didn't seem to be paying any attention to or egging on the crowd, which was a big plus in my book.)

The Palestrina alternatim setting of the Veni Sancte Spiritus (sung in English) was welcome. The liturgy guide provided the chanted verses with square notation.

The Pope committed a number of melodic lapses with the Preface and other parts, but I think that such mistakes can be encouraging for clergy without a great deal of confidence in their singing voices.

Let's hope that the Catholic youth of the world will have the Pater Noster down pat for Spain. It would be an excellent idea for the organizers of WYD (or the CMAA delegation to Madrid!?) to encourage pilgrims and volunteers to learn this and the Jubilate Deo composite Mass for 2011.

The Communion chant was quite welcome; the singing of the Moore "Taste and See" brought back memories.

The organ postlude - a very welcome surprise especially as it was not noted in the program - was followed by the multilingual version of the WYD '08 theme song.